EFL learners’ metaphors and images about foreign language learning

Abstract

In this paper, I will argue that awareness of images and metaphors held by foreign language learners about the nature of the target language and its learning can be of substantial value and provide teaching practitioners with useful insights about how to deal with various language learning problems. To elicit images which learners hold about foreign language learning, a questionnaire was given to 350 learners of English in different places in Iran. The questionnaire asked the respondents to provide images about learning a foreign language by using a sentence completion task: "Learning a foreign language is like . . ." The responses gained in 200 questionnaires were content-analyzed and the identified images and metaphors were summarized under more broad-ranging categories. The information that the metaphors and the resulting metaphorical categories provide and the theoretical interpretations which can plausibly be made are discussed in some detail and put in a cognitive-psychological perspective.Keywords: conceptual metaphor, foreign language learning, language learners' images, language learners' metaphors, learners' beliefs, metaphor analysisThe study of language learners' beliefs and thought processes has been of interest to researchers for several decades and has recently gathered increased momentum (e.g., Berry, 2004;Cotterall, 1999;Finkbeiner, 2003;Fortune, 2005;Hawkins, 1999;Liao, 2006; Svalberg, 2005). Direct questionnaires tapping into learners' beliefs about different dimensions of language learning (e.g., Horwitz,

Moğol Öğrenci̇leri̇n Türki̇ye Ve Türkçe Algilari

“…Eğitim alanında metaforla ilgili çok sayıda araştırma olmasına karşın Türkçenin yabancı dil olarak öğretimi konusunda metaforla ilgili olarak yapılan çalışmaların istenilen düzeyde olmadığı görülmektedir. Hâlbuki öğrencilerin düşünme süreçlerinin temel içeriğini keşfetmenin bir yolu, öğrencilerin dil öğrenimi hakkında oluşturduğu imgeleri ve metaforları ortaya çıkarmak ve bunlara bakmaktır (Farjami, 2012). Ayrıca öğrencilerin oluşturacakları metaforların yetiştikleri kültürel ortamla bağlantılı olduğunun unutulmaması (Zhang ve Hu, 2009, s. 80) ve yabancı dil eğitiminde farklı kültürlerden gelen öğrencilerin kendi kültürlerine özgü düşünce ve yaşayış özelliklerinin de tespit edilip eğitimin bu durumlar göz önünde bulundurularak düzenlenmesi son derece önemlidir.…”

EFL Learners' Beliefs about Speaking English and Being a Good Speaker: A Metaphor Analysis

“…There is currently a growing body of research investigating learners' beliefs in diverse education domains. This trend has also gained momentum in language learning, especially in recent decades [28].…”

“…In the second/foreign language (L2) research field, researchers have primarily concentrated on the learner aspect and generally studied beliefs about the experiences in language learning [19,24,26,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Previous studies have shown that learners' beliefs constantly evolve in accordance with learners' previous experiences in the learning process [29,33,34].…”

“…In the L2 field, researchers have focused on language learners' beliefs about different educational phenomena, such as learning a foreign language [28], English teachers [36,47]; L2 motivation [45], standard foreign language tests [46] and language teaching course books [41]. These studies have reported learners' metaphors and conceptual categories related to the above concepts.…”

The Metaphors That Candidate Teachers Used for Foreign Language Teacher

“…The metaphors, which Aristotle just defined as rhetoric ingredients (Wilkes, 1989), but are used in our daily lives unwittingly and have rooted in our sub-conscious (Lakoff and Johnson 2011) in addition to these features, can be used in many fields from not only medicine and science as the best instrument to identify the problems, but also to law and social sciences (Caserett et al 2010;Doring et al 2011;Gravett 2015). As Farjami (2012) reports, a metaphor helps to highlight certain properties of reality while forcing others into the background and therefore points to features of the experience which is perceived as the most relevant and important. Through this function, metaphors clarify abstract ideas by tangible, visual and sensual images (Neisser, 2003).…”